From olympic track star, to prisoner of war, Louis Zamperini finds himself in quite a tough place when his track star fame dies down and he joins the United States Air Force. The setting is during World War 2, and after Louis is bombing the Japanese, he is caught in a fleet of Japanese fighter pilots. The plane he is on is shot down and crashes into the middle of the ocean. Louis, and 2 of his fellow crewmen are the only ones to survive the plane crash. They spend over one month drifting in the middle of the ocean, just trying to stay alive. I think this was a very good movie. It shows how Zamperini overcomes the hardest of times. It is very inspiring to see him overcome all of his struggles and near death experiences.
After spending nearly 50 days at sea, being shot at by planes, almost eaten by sharks, starving, and sunburned, Louis and his crew are picked up by a Japanese Navy ship. The Japanese send Louis to a Prisoner of War camp, after they tortured him for several days, that is after he’d been in solitary confinement without any food. At the prisoner of war camp, Louis is pushed to the limit by the ever demanding Japanese general. The General beats Louis and other prisoners for whenever he can find a reason, and sometimes just because he wants to. Louis never gives up during all of the torment in the P.O.W. camp.
The director of Unbroken, Angelina Jolie has directed 2 other movies, but I have never seen either of them. She did a very good job while directing this movie. There were some plot flaws, including the flags for both the United States and Japan were not flags of the time period. There were also many other plot flaws that I read that were pointed out on IMDb online by professional movie critics.
The Actor for Louis Zamperini, Jack O’Connell, did an outstanding job in this movie. He didn’t win any awards for the acting, but I think he should have. He stood strong while the Japanese P.O.W. general beats him, and he shows massive amounts of strength when even after he’s beaten, he gets back up, and continues to work even harder than he worked before.
Domhnall Gleeson plays Phil, the crewman who goes through everything with Louis in the entire movie. He is almost killed several times with Louis throughout the movie, and is tormented, and starved with Louis. He plays his character extremely well. He helps Louis throughout the movie, and Louis helps him, which makes for a brother-like bond between the two of them. This makes for a good story over-all.
Overall, I think this was a very good movie. Despite some of the plot flaws, I liked the storyline and setting of the movie. War movies have always been very enjoyable for me, and I liked this one very much. It showed the struggles that many Americans in the time of WWII went through, including those Americans that were in a P.O.W. camp. If I had to give this movie a rating, I would give it a 8 out of 10. This is one of my favorite war movies that I have ever seen, but there were still some flaws, and that’s why I cannot give it a full 10 out of 10.